In “The Flowers”, Alice Walker explores the woods through the eyes of a little girl named Myop, but she soon realizes the world isn’t as nice as flowers. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, Joyce Carol Oates follows a young girl named Connie who is focused on others and her own appearance, until she is introduced to the world in a unexpected way. Both Walker and Oates use young girls to show the harsher sides of the world and how their childhood changes to adulthood in different ways. The main thing that Myop and Connie have in common is that they are both females, but their looks and the way the live are totally different. Myop is a ten-year-old African American girl who lives in a sharecropper cabin, which shows that she is in …show more content…
Myops theme is the loss of innocence, which she loses at the end when she leaves her flowers with the dead man. She lost her innocence because she was ten-years-old and came across a harsh death, which her flowers could represent. She lays down the flowers, her innocence, and leaves it behind in the gloomy area that she came upon. Connies theme on the other hand is being taken from childhood to adulthood. She is taken from a place that she knows and introduced to a more harsher reality. She is taken by Arnold Friend and most likely raped. She leaves behind everything and goes with this strange man who does not seem human. Both Myop and Connie leave known places to unknown places. It is also unknown what actually happens to both the ending have cliffhangers for us to assume what happened. “And the summer was over” (Walker), and “…so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it” (Oates). Regardless of the many differences between Myop and Connie they could not be protected from the harsh things in the world. They each left something behind that was so familiar to them. They may have gone through different situations, but they each lost something within
From these mass media, we learn; we dream; we think. This is the same as what Connie does in the story. On the other hand, we as dependent children will try to get rid of our family constraints. We want to be independent just like the way she does. Therefore, Connie is sharing the same experience with us.
She talks about how her mother raised her and her three brothers after their father left them when she was very young and when the children were young, their mother would go to work, and their drunk, abusive uncle would care for them. The Self and Identity concept also related to In Search of Sangum because she is struggling to find herself and figure out who she was. Overall these two stories definitely had their difference and similarities and tie into one
Tragically, I think Connie is separated from her family toward the end of Oates' story. She is power to run with Arnold Friend and Ellie far away in the Country. She comes to ensure her family. Arnold Friend may sexually abuse her. I trust this due to the accompanying quote, "We'll go out to a pleasant field, out in the nation here where the aroma is so pleasant and it's sunny," Arnold-Friend said.
Eventually, Arnold convinces Connie to cross this barrier in order to protect her family. As she leaves her home, Oates explains that there is “so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it” (377). Hideous things will indeed occur to Connie after this. She is consumed by bright sunlight while
Two Different Worlds The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” written by Joyce Oates demonstrates through the main character Connie, a young girl that has been trying to find her place in the world, that people always will all have to battle their fears interwinding with their desires. First and foremost, Connie is a pretty young girl that thrives on her beauty. Her obsession with her beauty in a psychological point of view is actually her desire to have a connection with her mother. Her beauty is the one compliment that her mother will give her, “ ‘ Stop gawking at yourself.
The theme is developed by how Jeannette learns how to take care of herself and her younger siblings, and the way her parent taught her. Jeannette have a very tough childhood where she have to go up quickly,so that she can work to make money. This way she won’t starve and feel the chill of winter, where there’s no heat in the house. She can also break ties with the move and rent new house to find new money sources because her dad can’t hold a job for a long
It is made clear to us as readers that Myop is a young girl of color. This is crucial to the point of this story. As Myop passes “her family’s sharecropper cabin” she is still naïve to what will come of her day. The time of sharecroppers was when slavery was just beginning to end, meaning there was still violence and hate crimes towards people of color.
The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written by the author Joyce Carol Oates in 1966. Oates describes her idea for the story after briefly reading an article about the real-life murderer, Charles Schmid, who lured and murdered three teenage girls (Kirszner & Mandell 523). She uses this idea to create the character, Arnold Friend, and his victim, Connie. Connie is a typical teenage girl portrayed as naïve and self-centered. The short story appears realistic, given that the conflict in the story is based off of real events.
In the coming of age story “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates uses symbolism, conflict, and the third person to foreshadow fifteen-year-old Connie’s unfortunate, yet untimely fate. While one may think that the conflict stems from Connie’s promiscuity, it is clear to see her promiscuity is only a result to a much bigger conflict, her mother’s constant nagging and disapproval, alongside the lack of attention from her father. the author paints a vivid picture of what happens when a fifteen-year-old girl such as Connie goes elsewhere to find to find the love, attention, and approval that she lacks at home. All which is vital for her growth and wellbeing as a person.
Fantasy V.S. Reality In some cases an individual can perceive something as the complete opposite of what it truly is. People create the illusion or the fantasy on what they believe something to be.
Arnold Friend’s Biblical Allusions In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Joyce Carol Oates tells a story of a young, innocent teenage girl, Connie who enjoys listening to music and begins exploring her sexuality and being with boys “the way it was in the movies and promised in songs” (Oates 198). In fact she catches the attention of Arnold Friend one night while at the mall meeting up with a boy. Not knowing he would appear in her life, Arnold strangely shows up at her house assuming they made plans to get together. His character is seen as the devil.
In her short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Joyce Carol Oates utilizes a variety of literary devices to strengthen the story in its entirety. This short story is essentially about a 16-year-old girl named Connie and the conflict between her desire to be mature and her desire to remain an adolescent. Throughout the story, the audience sees this conflict through her words in addition to through her behavior. The audience is also introduced to Arnold Friend, a rather peculiar man, who essentially kidnaps her. This short story by Joyce Carol Oates functions and is additionally meaningful because of her usage of literary devices.
This interpretation of the story explains how Connie simply fell prey to the common theme of men acting as predators in society. Therefore, Connie had no say in her fate, so she just decided to go quietly with him. However, this theory completely disregards the psychological disorders that Connie has. Connie did not go quietly with Arnold because he was a dominating male. Instead, Connie left due to her numerous unconscious mental problems.
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” is about a teenager named Connie who is trying to come to terms with her transformation from childhood to adulthood. Through this process, Connie attempts to act older than she is an tries to gain the attention of boys. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Oates portrays Connie as obsessed with men to symbolize how one’s obsession and narcissistic attitude can cause danger to seem surreal. In the short story, Carol Oates describes Connie as having two different personalities, one being a narcissistic attitude.
Connie: The Victim To A Demon The “heroine” of the short story Where Are You Going Where Have You Been written by Joyce Carol Oates has been interpreted in many different ways by many different authors across the globe. They all have their own opinions on why Connie had left her home and walked into the arms of Arnold Friend. Larry Rain makes the argument that Connie was a noble heroine that “chooses the side with the devil [to save her family]” (Rain Gale).